Just a few of my thoughts on the world around me

TT-De Profundis

So I had trouble getting this as an easy video, so you’ll have to click the link. –> click me!

Anyways, we sang this last fall and its a pretty sweet song! Enjoy!

Taken from inside the cover of the choral arrangement:

“I was asked to write an original composition for choir and orchestra to close a concert I was conducting in Lincoln Center to follow our performance of the Schubert Mass in G. several things go through one’s mind when contemplating writing a piece: the ensembles, a text, a style, etc. Sometimes these ideas arrive all at once and sometimes separately. I wanted to write something with great contrast to the Schubert Mass. I wanted it to be contemporary, but with a strong theme and a strong text. I chose to write melodic themes in D Dorian mode and mixed meters that are sung in unison and parts, but easily recognizable, sung and remembered. I also want this piece to be primarily in 5/4. I love 5/4 because the emphases can be so many different places within the context of this meter signature. When I was writing this, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack in our country was also approaching. The anguish of that event for those who perished and survived also invaded my mind as I wrote this. I chose the Latin text of Psalm 130, De Profundis, excerpted from the first for lines of that text. In addition, I felt it needed a connection with the translated text as certain parts of the piece, so I used the first line of the Psalm “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord!” The muses worked and culminated from there including the final section and G major chord.

It is marked as Mysterioso because in this minimalistic setting, it should be sung with a sense of wonder, contemplation and drama regardless of the dynamic markings. I am pleased that my good friend, Carl Strommen, agreed to orchestrate it for the Lincoln Center premiere and that may be added if you can utilize a string orchestra and percussion with your choir. However, it can easily stand alone with just the piano accompaniment.